1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to modified inorganic polymers and to methods of making such modified inorganic polymers. Additionally, it relates to methods of producing polynucleotides utilizing said modified inorganic polymers as a support structure.
2. Prior Art
Numerous attempts have been made to develop a successful methodology for synthesizing sequence defined oligonucleotides. However, the stepwise synthesis of polynucleotides, and specifically oligonucleotides still remains a difficult and time consuming task, often with low yields. One prior art technique has included the use of organic polymers as supports during polynucleotide synthesis. Classically the major problems with polymer supported synthesis strategies has been inherent in the nature of the polymer support. Various prior art polymers used in such syntheses have proven inadequate for reasons such as: (1) slow diffusion rates of activated nucleotides into the support; (2) excessive swelling of various macroporous, low cross-linked support polymers; and (3) irreversible absorption of reagents onto the polymer. See for example, V. Amarnath and A. D. Broom, Chemical Reviews 77, 183-217 (1977).
Modified inorganic polymers are known in the prior art, primarily for use as absorption materials, for example, in liquid chromatography. The attachment of nucleosidephosphates to silica gel using a trityl linking group is described in the prior art (H. Koster, Tetrahedron Letters, 1527-1530, 1972) but the method is apparently applicable only to pyrimidine nucleosides. The cleavage of the nucleoside from the silica support can only be accomplished with acid to which the purine nucleosides are sensitive.
The production of phosphotriester derivatives of oligothymidylates is described in the literature (R. L. Letsinger and W. B. Lunsford, Journal of the American Chemical Society, 98:12, 3655-3661) by reaction of a phosphorodichloridite with a 5'--0 blocked thymidine and subsequent reaction of the product with a 3'--O-- blocked thymidine followed by oxidation of the resulting phosphite to a phosphate and removal of blocking groups to obtain the phosphotriesters; using this procedure, the tetramer and pentamer products, dTpTpTpT and dTpTp TpTpT in which T is thymidine were prepared. Unfortunately, the process requires separation and purification of products at each stage to ensure proper sequencing of the added nucleosides. Separation techniques including precipitation and washing of precipitates are necessary to implement each successive stage reaction.